Conference: Energy Access Educators Workshop

吸引和留住工科本科学生是一个难题，也是国家利益之一。增加工程专业学生的招募和保留的一个有效方法，特别是在代表性不足的群体中，是将人道主义工程主题和项目纳入课程、联合课程和课外活动。如果学生接触到工程的应用，以改善边缘化、资源不足或处于危险社区的人们的生活和生计，他们更有可能对工程表现出兴趣并坚持下去。然而，学生参与人道主义工程活动的情况因学科而异。土木和机械工程专业的学生可能很容易在更常见的人道主义工程活动中看到他们的学科的反映，如清洁水和住房项目，电气工程专业的学生不太可能看到他们的学科与服务人类的联系。电气工程专业学生参与人道主义工程的一个未充分利用的切入点是电力接入领域。电力供应涉及向目前没有电的8亿人提供电力。不幸的是，活跃在这一领域的教师数量相对较少，也没有专门为这些教育者服务的场所、专业协会或基础设施。这限制了电气工程专业学生获得人道主义工程经验的质量和数量，并扼杀了社区建设、学术交流和教师之间合作的机会。该项目将创建首个专门致力于加强和扩大电力获取方面的本科工程教育的讲习班。该项目将召集来自行业、政府和非营利组织的约25名能源获取教育工作者和利益相关者参加为期两天的研讨会。研讨会议程包括有针对性的讨论、小组讨论和交流环节。在这些会议中，参与者将分享课程、联合课程和课外活动的最佳实践、经验教训和创新理念，并确定差距和挑战，如确定教育材料、建立当地伙伴关系和获得资金。将进行讲习班前和讲习班后调查，初步了解获得电力教育的状况，制定讲习班议程，并评估讲习班在实现其目标方面的成功。讲习班的主要成果将通过出版物和专题介绍加以综合和传播。研讨会将为未来的活动和基础设施制定路线图，如额外的研讨会、电子邮件列表、课程材料和资源的共享，以及合作的教学或应用研究。讲习班的参加者将从各种高等教育机构征聘，特别强调主要本科院校、部落学院和大学以及历史上的黑人学院和大学。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Attracting and retaining undergraduate engineering students is a difficult problem, and one of national interest. One effective way to increase engineering student recruitment and retention, particularly among underrepresented groups, is by incorporating humanitarian engineering themes and projects into curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities. Students are more likely to show interest in and persist in engineering if they are exposed to the application of engineering to improve the lives and livelihoods of people in marginalized, under-resourced, or at-risk communities. However, student participation in humanitarian engineering activities varies unevenly by discipline. While civil and mechanical engineering students may easily see their disciplines reflected in the more common humanitarian engineering activities such as clean water and shelter projects, electrical engineering students are less likely to see the connection of their discipline and serving humanity. An underutilized entry point for electrical engineering students to engage with humanitarian engineering is in the field of electricity access. Electricity access is concerned with providing electricity to the 800 million people presently without it. Unfortunately, the number of faculty active in this area is relatively small, and there is no venue, professional association or infrastructure dedicated to serving these educators. This limits the quality and quantity of humanitarian engineering experiences available to electrical engineering students, and stifles community building, academic exchange and opportunities for collaboration among the faculty. This project will create a first-of-its-kind workshop dedicated solely to enhancing and expanding undergraduate engineering education in electricity access.The project will convene approximately 25 energy access educators and stakeholders from industry, government, and non-profit organizations for a two-day workshop. The workshop agenda includes targeted discussion, panel and networking sessions. In these sessions, participants will share best practices, lessons learned, and innovative ideas for curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities as well as identify gaps and challenges such as identifying educational materials, establishing local partnerships, and acquiring funding. Pre- and post-workshop surveys will be given to create a preliminary snapshot of the state of electricity access education, shape the workshop agenda, and assess the success of the workshop in meeting its aims. The key findings of the workshop will be synthesized and disseminated through publications and presentations. The workshop will lead to the development a roadmap of future activities and infrastructure, such as additional workshops, email lists, sharing of course materials and resources, and collaborative pedagogical or applied research. The workshop participants will be recruited from a variety of higher education institutions, with particular emphasis on Primarily Undergraduate Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.